Borderlands

post-apocalypse point-of-light

Creation

Followers of Creation are known as Builders or Creators. They follow in the Force of Creation: that which makes something from nothing, rebuilds what has been damaged, or recovers what has been lost.

Major Churches

Brotherhood of Preservation (Unaligned): A sub-branch of Creation, the Preservers are less interested with new creation and more with maintaining what has been created. They work to repair and restore what has been damaged.

The Builders (Lawful Good, Evil, Unaligned): As their mantra states, Builders must build. The Builders are industrialists, focused on the creation of new cities, roads, and magitech devices. They believe in progress and civilization, the taming of order and chaos.

The Order (Lawful Good): Often called ‘the Order of Creation’ by non-members, the Order has charged themselves with creating the rules for creation. They laboriously create guidelines, blueprints, and templates to be used in any new creation. These guidelines extend to buildings, city layouts, but also art such as paintings and plays. They believe than when the guidelines are perfected, anyone will be able to create a masterpiece.

Painters of the Song (Good): Free-spirits and anarchists, the Painters believe in free and chaotic creativity. They oppose all rules and laws, even natural ones, and enjoy the abstract, surreal, and illogical.

The Two Forces

Worship of fundamental powers is the most widespread and dominant religion of the Beltway, predating the Catastrophe. Many believe they are beyond good and evil however, the actions of worshipers can generally be classified as such. Followers revere one and adopt a related ethos, morality, and accepted dogma.

Common folk often describe the Forces as “gods” but scholars occasionally dispute this and claim they are powerful beliefs that can empower mortals and that shape the universe. While skeptics believe gods exist, they are typically thought of as powerful beings (often formerly mortal) empowered by one or both of the Forces. Some believe the Forces are merely a source of power that can be tapped into, while others believe they are beyond the mortal definition of awareness.

Creation and Destruction are seldom given personalities or anthropomorphized; they are sometimes not even associated with sentience. Most churches represent them through iconography or symbols. A rare few characterize them as human archetypes or give them genders (Destruction is typically male and Creation female, however halflings often reverse these).

Churches are found in most major cities (although they are hidden in most Grigoran cities) and a few larger cities have three or four in addition to small shrines. The two Forces seldom share churches, but more amiable factions often build across the street from each other. Churches tend to follow a particular dogma and be constructed related to that belief; more regimented and lawful sects build large, impressive churches while more chaotic branches move from place to place or hold impromptu gatherings.

There is little neutrality in the faiths. Some believe both Forces serve a purpose and that there must be a balance between Creation and Destruction, but most believe that their actions will significantly tip the cosmic balance. Others believe there is a battle for dominance between the Forces and that one must inevitably triumph and supersede the other.